The N.C. Mining & Energy Commission on Friday voted unanimously to write a letter of protest to the state legislature, which is considering a bill that would take a key fracking standard out of the commission’s hands. The standard – public disclosure of chemicals pumped into the ground during fracking – is the most contentious in every state that has shale gas drilling activity.

The commissioners debated writing a letter to the legislature for 45 minutes, at times interrupting each other and talking at the same time. Chairman James Womack plans to send the letter Saturday to the Republican leaders of both chambers, House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger.

“The motion is to let us do our work, to complete our work,” Womack said during the debate.

At issue is a provision in House Bill 94 that would leave the writing of the state’s chemical disclosure law to the state legislature. Members of the Mining & Energy Commission, which had been deliberating on such a standard for several months, were blindsided by the effort.

“It’s a gross injustice, not only to this commission and to the staff, but to the citizens of the state,” Commissioner Charles Taylor said during the debate.

The Mining & Energy Commission was moving in the direction of writing the nation’s strictest disclosure law with maximum disclosure of chemicals. The only detail that would not be disclosed is the precise proportions of those chemicals in the fracking fluid.

The fluid, a mixture of water, chemicals and sand, is used to prevent corrosion and increase lubrication when underground shale rocks are hydraulically fractured to release natural gas trapped inside.

A Senate committee this week passed a 43-page bill that included a provision that would allow energy companies to withhold “trade secrets” from their state filings. The information would have to be disclosed in the event of an accident that constituted a public health emergency.

Commissioner George Howard disagreed with his colleagues. He said they had it coming by proposing that trade secrets be held by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Agency officials said state government would be subject to multiple lawsuits to pry the trade secrets loose.

“We picked a fight we shouldn’t have picked, and that is, who holds the trade secret,” Howard said. “They communicated they didn’t want to hold the trade secret and we stiffed them.”

Howard said that the companies, instead of state agencies, should hold the secrets. House Bill 94 would require companies to release the information within two hours in case of public health emergency.

Womack, the commission chairman, said that provision could be abused by the industry to withhold information about chemicals because they are controversial but not proprietary.

“When you leave that temptation there, industry has carte blanche,” Womack said. “They can withhold it, doesn’t matter what was in the chemical.”

Many commissioners were astounded that the legislature would attempt to bypass a commission it created a year ago to create fracking rules. Taylor said the legislature’s action was an “insult.”

Commissioners were also dismayed that the energy industry was privately negotiating fracking safety standards with legislators rather than coming before the Mining & Energy Commission.

“From my perspective, it is eroding the trust of the people of North Carolina,” said Commissioner Ray Covington. “Industry going to them instead of industry coming to us, erodes that trust.”